Belated Yule 2012 post

Wow, it took me a long time to realize I haven't blogged about our Yule night! I woke up pretty early today and was scrolling down pictures because I'm missing my little witch, who's away at his dad's for his Winter vacations (as everybody knows, so much I talk about it, lol!), when I stumbled upon these photos.

Yule is always a very special sabbath for us. It's when we decorate our altars with our little tree and ornaments I made years ago representing the Sun, the triple Moon and all the pagan symbols I treasure. These simple ornaments are images I printed and laminated, and there are also some ornaments that Lucas drew himself. They're old but we love them, and our favorite task is to hang them on a natural leafy branch while listening to cool Yule songs (or some rock'n'roll!). Here's his altar, all decorated, already with his gift and a love note I always write to him (on the left you see a tinfoil "gift" my mom gave him to eat after the ritual: his favorite chicken patty, lol!):

Traditionally, every Yule we exchange little gifts handmade by ourselves. Usually Lucas will make me a natural "jewel" or ornament, like the year he made me a cute tropical snowman in cotton and sticks. This year, he made me a lovely necklace made with five long ivy leaves in a thin thread. The leaves ended up geting dry because he created it the previous week and hid it in his grandma's bedroom, but it was wonderful anyway, and I used it all day long - now it is proudly hanging by my computer's side.

Lucas loves when I make something in felt for him as a Yule gift, and I have already made him runes, bookmarks, a fire monster... This year, as I had saved for weeks his sketch for another little monster, I made it for him (sorry for the poor photo quality, back then my old camera was starting to get unstable before going totally kaput):

I wrapped it and placed it under his altar's Yule tree while he was at school, so he would find it when back home. He loved it and sleeps with it under his pillow. :o) Here we are with our gifts:

Earlier that afternoon, I had posted on my Facebook wall about how Lucas decided making a protection potion to use in our evening Yule prayer, and as I was going to add my relatives names in his cauldron for a protection ritual, he suggested me to ask my friends if they wanted to have their names added to it. Several friends wanted to, and their names, relatives' and friends' were carefully written down in pieces of papers, folded and placed into his cauldron, where we would add a bit of his potion as well as his protective herbs I filtered and dried. My little witch loved this idea so much that we plan to do it at least once a month. You can see all the folded papers here:

In the evening, we made our simple ritual, with Lucas opening the circle as always, and lighting a special candle. We burned the papers in the cauldron, watching the wonderful flames dancing for a long time, asking Demeter, Brigid and Cernunnos to protect us all in strength, healing and health during the upcoming cold months:

When the fire was over, we shared the delicious chicken patty, closed the circle, and our Yule night was over. We felt recharged and blessed for sharing another year honoring the gods together, and I, once again, felt blessed to see how naturally and happily connected my little witch is.

The morning after, I buried the ashes and the candle wax's remainings in the flower bed, to close the protective spell. 

... And the Wheel of the Year turned a little bit more. :o)

When a saga comes to an end

So the little witch got to the last Harry Potter book. As everyone must know by now, Lucas is a huge HP fan. He started watching the first movies on TV - ad nauseam -when he was 3. His 5th birthday party theme was about him, and it was a couple of months before that when I started reading the first 3 books for him at bedtime. My sister gave him as a b-day gift last year the whole set of HP books, but he only started reading them this January (go figure...). And he simply didn't stop. Every morning before breakfast, he was with one of the books... 

Then before lunch he would read for me...

And especially at bedtime, he was 'glued' to the books...

He loves to have me reading for him before sleeping, so I would always read a chapter or two, mimicking characters' voices, before he read on by himself while I was on the upper bed reading my own books. Along the months he read Harry Potter's adventures, commenting about them with me and also discussing the characters' ethics and attitudes.

Some weeks ago, he finally reached book #7 and started feeling sad because the saga was almost over. About ten pages to the end of the book, he refused to keep on reading. He wanted to watch the movies again, and placed the book by his bed, untouched, for days. When I asked him when he would finish reading it, he replied, "when I'm ready." I didn't insist and respected his break time to absorb the whole idea of letting go. 

Last week, he finally grabbed the book, looked at me and asked me to read it for him. So I went under the blankets with him, and read out loud the final pages while he listened, comfortably resting his head on my shoulder. When the last line was over, he gave a deep sigh and thanked me, comforting me with a hug because I was, typically, with tears in my eyes. A minute later and he was alright, teasing me saying that he would start reading all the books again from the beginning!

He's got the movies stickers on his bed, Hermione's time-turner and the golden snitch on the TV table, Harry's wand behind the door... He often plays with his friends as if they were in Hogwarts. We often talk about the stories, and he shares his opinions on the many challenges and hard times Potter goes through. It's part of his life, and now that the books were read and are all back to the bookshelf, this essence will stay with him for the rest of his life, and I bet that if/when he has his own kids, he'll read the books at bedtime, exactly like I did, and the magic will rise to another generation. ;o)